Date of Award

5-2022

Access Control

Open Access

Degree Name

International Graduate Program for Educators - M. S. in Multidisciplinary studies

Department

International Graduate Program for Educators

Advisor

Dr Joyce

Abstract

Throughout my long experience as an educator, I have noticed the weak attitude towards learning science amongst students in Qatar. I work as an administrator at a school called The Fourth Assalam School. The school caters to 80% Indians and Pakistanis, while 20% are from Africa and the Philippines. The school collaborates with one of the national charitable organisations ( Qatar Charity) to integrate out-of-school children and Families with Financial issues into a school system to complete formal education.

This academic year, I had the opportunity to go through the final score of the Cambridge progression test conducted in my school for the 7th grade, and the results were disappointing. 80% of the students performed below the age and grade-related expectations compared to the British National standards. I could not help but think of ways to improve academic achievement and learning outcomes in science.

As an educator, students in this age group have reached the developmental stage that one needs to expose them to new situations, ideas, and concepts that can enhance self-awareness and motivation towards this subject area, and this on the other hand will allow them to make good decisions, take responsibility and be an active driver of their learning process.

Shore, R., Ray, J., & Goolkasian, P. (2013). The article says that many researchers believe middle school years are appropriate for pursuing advanced studies and careers in related fields. It is a crucial formative and transactional period to prepare for a fast-changing future and learn the foundation skills for the future.

Following a series of general discussions with the students and teachers, the distribution of questionnaires and my observation gave me an insight into improving academic achievement in science. Students' discussions and ideas were centred around how they enjoyed doing projects in science, cooperative learning where they can work together to investigate and solve a problem, and hand-on materials incorporated while teaching, encouraging students' interest in science. To narrow down all the problem and presumptive solution, I reviewed and examined teaching practices in the science department and concluded that with all these said by the students, an enrichment program needs to be implemented just for science classes where students can practice all aspect suggested and at the same time develop skills and have in-depth knowledge about their schoolwork.

There are currently 30 students in Year 7M, of which 26 students will participate in this program, which will take place every Thursday for the first two periods for 90 mins. One crucial factor is having students with the same ability working with the same materials to get accurate data when carrying out the analysis.

My research problem will focus on how students can use the enrichment program for science to improve their critical thinking and problem-solving skills to enhance academic achievement. As they go through different strategies in this program, they should also develop their own learning experience to learn about the depth of each content and gain research skills. Implementing this program in year 7 M will allow me to gradually reduce the traditional teaching method and promote updated teaching practices that can enhance academic achievement and improve students' interest in science.

According to Kim, H. (2015), Implementing enrichment programs means allowing the students to study the school subject matters more deeply than what is done in the regular classes. It also allows students to pursue their program with their peers in the regular classes.

I intend to research and apply different strategies to measure the impact of a science enrichment program on students' achievement.

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